How technology can improve grades
The goal of the course is to help students achieve better grades in school not to just teach typing.
Without typing skills, it is much harder for students to access this technology.
In readiness to return to school our final webinar will remind students about the technology that can help them improve their grades.
To encourage students to revise what was taught during lessons, they are advised to go to this webpage
How touch typing improves academic success
If students read this information and watch the video they will be prepared to answer quiz questions during the webinar.
Technology to help students get better grades in exams
This video explores:
What makes school & exams hard for students with learning differences
Introduces technology to help overcome learning differences.
Parents of younger children
Much of this information will be irrelevant at this time for younger students. In this case, it is advised that parents familiarise themselves with the functionality so they can prompt students to use learning tools at the appropriate time.
Helpful Videos
The learning tools available once students can type is HUGE. The webpage linked above covers the main benefits but many, many more exist.
Students eager to improve their grades should watch the short video below. Doing so will further prepare students for the last webinar quiz.
These videos will be available in the future to remind students of the learning tools they can use.
This is the longest most comprehensive video that shows the helpful functionality in Microsoft Word in Office 365. These include:
Spelling & grammar check;
Clarity & conciseness;
Synonyms and thesaurus';
Colour backgrounds to help with visual stress;
Dyslexia friendly fonts;
Having work read aloud (enabling proofreading) so mistakes can be heard and corrected;
Correct, organise & re-organise work quickly and easily.
This is an excerpt from a lesson taught to a primary typing class.
It explains why exams are so hard for students with SpLD, particularly dyslexic children.
It acknowledges that while the exam system is stacked against some learners, these same students can still be gifted, intelligent and capable of excelling in any subject.
The difference between literacy and intelligence is discussed, encouraing students not to judge their intelligence by their literacy.
This is an excerpt from a lesson where Caroline shares how tech tools helped her own children go from struggling at school to excelling.
She has added some updates since the lesson was taught.
For students that don’t have Microsoft 365 subscription, Word Online is totally FREE.
It has some features students love that are not available in the paid version. For example,
Picture dictionary;
Parts of speech.
The read aloud functionality is NOT as good. Can you tell me why?
Every formal exam a student takes is a test for speed as well as knowledge.
This video uses actual student typing results to calculates the extra sentences students could type in a finite time period, compared to writing by hand.
Quick overview of how typing can improve grades for dyslexics.
Summary of how important it is to help students create good quality written work.
Overview of learning tools in Microsoft 365 and Word Online.
Plus where to find information on how to use text to speech on different devices.
Schools expect students to read to learn new information.
This puts students that find reading difficult at a disadvantage across the whole curriculum.
Read aloud functionality that is used to listen to what students have typed can also be used to read from webpages, pdf’s and electronic textbooks. This relieves students from the burden of reading and enables them to learn without having to read.
Once students type their work they can take advantage of dyslexia friendly fonts.
This video introduces both dyslexia friendly fonts and why dyslexics should use them. It also introduces a playlist that explains how to download and use these fonts in different situations. Using these fonts is free, quick and easy and they can have a huge positive impact for the student.
Quick reminder of when to use which learning tools to help students get better grades in homework and exams.